Lynch puts emphasis on schools

Mike Lynch has reported sports for WCVB-Channel 5 for more than a quarter of a century, making him the dean of TV sports anchors in Boston.

“Thanks for reminding me,” Lynch said.

But after graduating from Harvard in 1977, he had no intention of going into broadcasting. He fully expected to go to law school.

“Some people still say I should have done that,” the easy-going Lynch said.

Lynch took a year off first and got sidetracked. He substitute taught, tended bar, refereed basketball games and umpired baseball games.

“My mother and father were horrified,” Lynch admitted.

Lynch also, as he put it, “weaseled my way” into keeping Harvard football statistics for $10 a game on radio for Ned Martin, better known as a Red Sox broadcaster. As Harvard’s kicker and backup quarterback, Lynch had grown to know Martin and enjoyed listening to him tell stories at Crimson practices about Carl Yastrzemski, Rico Petrocelli and Jim Lonborg.

Lynch was supposed to work only Harvard home games, but he caught a ride to Columbia, talked his way into the press box and sat down next to a surprised Martin to keep the stats anyway. Martin had trouble explaining the complicated offense of Harvard coach Joe Restic so without any warning he stuck the microphone in Lynch’s face and told him to do it.

Fortunately for Lynch, he didn’t freeze. He filled in as Martin’s analyst for a game later that season and was hired to work every game the following year at a pay boost of $100 a game. Law school never had a chance after that.

Lynch worked in Boston radio for a few years before joining Channel 5 part-time in 1982. He became weekend sports anchor in April of 1983 and replaced Lee Webb as principal sports anchor in September of 1985. He’s been there ever since and assumed the role of dean of Boston TV sports anchors when Bob Lobel was forced out at WBZ-Channel 4 last spring.

Channel 5’s news director suggested Lynch come up with something to distinguish himself from his top two competitors, Lobel and Channel 7’s John Dennis. Whenever he spoke at rotary club meetings, people urged Lynch to do more with high school sports. So Lynch took their advice and began “High Five,” honoring a high school athlete each week. Walpole football player Joe Betro was scheduled to receive the very first “High Five,” but coverage of Hurricane Gloria that September Friday night in 1985 nearly blew the segment off the air. Lynch managed to squeeze it in and he’s been flooded with nominations from high schools ever since.

Thanksgiving Day is Channel 5’s most extensive day for high school sports. With six cameras borrowed from the news department and video collected from various schools and local cable stations, Channel 5 put together highlights of 20 or so football games during a half-hour special last night and provided scores of all the games from Eastern and Central Mass.

After one Thanksgiving show in the late 1980s, Lynch got a call from his father, Dick, then the athletic director at Danvers High. Channel 5 had incorrectly reported that Danvers lost to Gloucester.

“It was the only game they won all year,” Lynch said. “Of all the scores to get wrong, it was the school where my father was the athletic director.”

Lynch has one of the most challenging jobs in Boston television — trying to pry interesting comments out of tight-lipped Bill Belichick while hosting “Patriots All-Access” each week. Lynch doesn’t always succeed, but Belichick sometimes surprises by revealing something he hasn’t in a mass press conference.

Lynch doesn’t pal around with Belichick, but he has earned his respect. Lynch thinks it helped that he played college football and that he, like Belichick, is the son of a football coach. Lynch also prepped a year at Phillips Exeter the year after Belichick prepped at Phillips Andover and the two went on to play college football with each other’s prep school friends.

“That might have helped chisel away at that wall of mistrust,” Lynch said.

Lynch kicked the game-winning field goal in the final minute when Harvard beat Yale, 10-7, in 1975 to win its first outright Ivy League football title, but he hasn’t dared to give any tips to Pats kickers Adam Vinatieri or Stephen Gostkowski. Lynch kicked straight-on and wore a square-toed shoe. Lynch thought his style was outdated until he attended a Swampscott-Winthrop game this fall and watched kickers from both schools kick straight on.

“Make a point, but don’t be obnoxious about it,” Lynch said. “It’s served me well over the years. I don’t take myself seriously, but I take my job very seriously. I think sometimes people find it tough to make that distinction.”

Lynch’s peers must think he’s doing something right because they honored him as the Massachusetts Sportscaster of the Year this year for the 12th time.

“Every time I find myself even on the ballot,” Lynch said, “I’m flattered.”

Lynch still can’t get over it when someone like Celtics legend John Havlicek or Bruins great Bobby Orr says hello and knows his name. They wouldn’t know it if he were a lawyer.

“When I go to all my reunions in high school and college,” Lynch said, “the lawyers all want to be me and I want to be them.”